Stocktouch is a universal iOS app that innovates the way investors can view the stock market. The app’s unusual UI lets the user view stock data across time, and sort the stocks in each of nine categories by size, market capitalization, percentage gains, volume, and even alphabetically.

Stocktouch refreshes data on 100 US and 100 Global stocks with the greatest market capitalization every five minutes during the market trading day (9:30 – 4:00 pm EST), though it also refreshes on command. Users can mark certain stocks (maybe AAPL?) as favorites, as well as using the app’s search function to find just what they are looking for.

Confession: I derive no pleasure from personal finance management. I approached Stocktouch with the hope that the app could help me overcome my aversion to the market. Initially, the app’s design drew me in.

While I may have opened Stocktouch because of its GUI (I may have remarked, “Ooh, pretty colors,”), but it was the app’s 8,500 charts kept my attention. Users can follow the top 100 stocks across 9 domestic and foreign categories.

By color coding each stock according to performance Stocktouch users can access a tremendous amount of information visually and get a sense of which sectors are flourishing and which are stagnant. The percent change over time is marked at the top of each sector so the user knows exactly how much a particular sector gained or lost in a given time period.

Will Stocktouch be enough to convert me? I won’t be taking pleasure in watching the money move through the markets or slavishly reading Motley Fool any time soon, but I definitely developed a better intuitive sense about ways that stocks are categorized and how their value changes over time.

What I liked: Even though it didn’t turn me in to an investment enthusiast, using Stocktouch to follow the stock market is a major upgrade from staring at those tiny columns in the newspaper. Reading the financial news stories that were linked to a particular stock were an interesting addition to the app.

What I didn’t like: Stocktouch can’t tell the user about any stock, so it isn’t an all-purpose tool for investors who have a specific set of stocks to follow.

To buy or not to buy: The biggest drawback to Stocktouch is that if a user is interested enough in finance to buy the app, it may not be thorough enough to meet her needs, yet novices like me are probably less likely to want to purchase it. Perhaps zealous financiers will gift the app as a well-meaning purchase for loved ones.